Whether Red Bull Ampol Racing can carry its swashbuckling Symmons Plains form into the Gen3 Supercars era is a question mark for Broc Feeney this weekend.
Triple Eight Race Engineering was the dominant force at the Tasmanian venue during the Car of the Future era, which began in 2013.
While Brad Jones Racing swept the three-race Symmons Plains weekend that year, Triple Eight claimed 16 victories out of a possible 20 in the eight events which were held subsequently, with another going to one of its customers, Tekno Autosports.
However, virtually everything on a Supercar has changed since Shane van Gisbergen won all three races on the Apple Isle in March last year.
Feeney, who prevailed in the most recent race of the season at Perth’s Wanneroo Raceway, said, “I’ve got good memories of Tassie. It’s where I got my first podium in the main game.
“Tassie is similar to Perth in the sense that it’s a short track which means the times are super tight.
“It’s been a successful track for Triple Eight in the past, but these new cars are quite different as we’re all still learning. So, it will be interesting to see if it carries over, but I’m just looking forward to going racing again.
“The whole category is still learning so much about these cars, but hopefully we can keep the momentum rolling from Perth.
“We finished very strong in Perth, and certainly made gains on the Sunday, so that shows just how hard the team are working to make those changes to the cars to put us at the front.
“Hopefully we can keep the good results going for Tassie.”
Feeney may have finished strongly in Perth, literally leading every single lap in Race 9 of the season from pole position, but, could only muster 10th in Race 7 from 11th on the grid and 13th in Race 8 from 21st.
Team-mate van Gisbergen had the opposite form swing in his #97 Camaro, converting pole into victory in Race 7, then fifth from ninth on the grid in Race 8, and 12th from 21st in race 9.
The 2022 champion highlighted that inconsistency as an area which Triple Eight needs to address.
“Coming from Perth, I think our qualifying results show that we need to work on the consistency in qualifying,” he said.
“I mean, one minute Broc was running at the back and next he’s up front in pole killing everybody.
“The team’s working hard to figure out how we can find that consistency, so for Tassie we’ll see if we can improve this.”
Van Gisbergen is third in the drivers’ championship, 136 points behind leader Brodie Kostecki, with Feeney fifth.
Support categories are on-track tomorrow at the Ned Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint, while Practice 1 for the Repco Supercars Championship field starts on Saturday at 09:00 local time/AEST.
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